Black-I Robotics designs and manufactures Unmanned ground vehicles or UGV - which
are robotic platforms used to extend human capabilities especially in
dangerous environments. Black-I Robotic's UGVs are capable of operating
outdoors and indoors and over a wide variety of terrains, functioning
in place of humans.

Unmanned
robotics are actively being developed for both civilian and military
use to perform dirty, and dangerous activities. The Department of
Defense estimates the size of this market to be $1.7 Billion over the
next five years.

Black-I Robotics produces two classes of unmanned ground vehicles: Teleoperated and in the near future Autonomous.

Teleoperated UGV

A teleoperated UGV
is a vehicle that is controlled by a human operator at a remote
location via a communications link. All cognitive processes are
provided by the operator based upon sensory feedback from either
line-of-sight visual observation or remote sensory input such as video
cameras. A basic example of the principles of teleoperation would be a
remote control vehicle. Each of the vehicles are unmanned and
controlled at a distance via a wireless connection while the user
provides all control based upon observed performance of the vehicle.

There are a wide variety of teleoperated UGVs
in use today. Predominantly these vehicles are used to replace humans
in hazardous situations. Examples are explosive and bomb disabling
vehicles. These are used in HomeLand Security, SWAT and the Department
of Defense.

Black-I Robotics offers a series of Mission Modules for these specific applications.

Autonomous & Semi-Autonomous UGVs

An autonomous UGV is essentially an autonomous vehicle that operates on the ground without human intervention.

There are semi and fully autonomous unmanned ground vehicles.

With
a semi-autonomous vehicle a human drives the robot remotely most of the
time. The vehicle's computers and sensors provide 'driver-assist'
features that prevent collisions and makes driving the robot easier
much as cruise control and anti-collision sensors in some high end
automobilies do today. More sophisticated semi-autonomous behavior has
the vehicle driving itself to a predetermined destination over a
predetermined route - often retraversing a route first completed by a
human controlling the vehicle remotely. Thus the UGV is driven down
range by a human and back by a machine.

A fully autonomous robot in the real world has the ability to:

Gain information about the environment.

Work for extended durations without human intervention.

Travel from point A to point B, without human navigation assistance.

Avoid situations that are harmful to people, property or itself

Repair itself without outside assistance.

A robot may also be able to learn autonomously. Autonomous learning includes the ability to: